Márkus Keller and the Békásmegyer ribbon house

A three-kilometre-long house could have stood on the site of the Békásmegyer housing estate if Elemér Zalotay's ambitious plan of the 1960s had been given the green light, which would have placed the housing, cultural and administrative functions of a housing estate in a 40-metre-high building under one roof. The fate of the building, which could accommodate 80,000 people, was ultimately sealed by changing ideas and financial considerations. Nevertheless, Zalotay's plan is the veterinary horse of the Kádár-era housing discourse, and it illustrates the changing attitudes of the time.

More about Zalotay's plan and the housing debates of the era can be read in the study entitled Szocialista kispolgár: A békásmegyeri lakótelep és a kádárizmus [Socialist petty bourgeois, The Békásmegyer housing estate and Kádárism] by Márkus Keller,  which will be published in the volume of studies entitled 1971: An average Kádár year?